Viking Cruises revealed some details of Viking Ocean's expedition fleet, consisting for now of 2 new vessels (currently under construction) – Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris. Both expedition liners are scheduled for launches in 2021 and inauguration in 2022-Q1.
The first itineraries of the newbuilds include a couple of 13-day sailings, one in Antarctica and another in the Arctic. The expedition ships will be smaller than Viking Ocean liners - with passenger capacity 378 (plus 260 crew/staff) and GT-tonnage 30150. The Arctic expeditions (from US$14,000 pp) will offer roundtrip sailings from Tromso, while the Antarctic expeditions (from US$15,000 pp) will sail from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia.
The new expedition vessels are currently built by VARD, specialized in expedition ships. According to reports, the project is to be developed by Vard Design in cooperation with the client, according to the highest safety and reduction of the environmental impact standards. It is expected the designs will be totally innovative.
The VARD shipyard previously revealed that the two newbuilds would be delivered to Viking Cruises in the second quarters of 2021 and 2022.